{"id":3913,"date":"2015-03-23T09:35:06","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T17:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?post_type=myprojects&#038;p=3913"},"modified":"2025-10-10T03:52:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T11:52:15","slug":"the-year-without-english-2","status":"publish","type":"myprojects","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/myprojects\/the-year-without-english-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Year Without English"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Year Without English: Final Video\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vPnHJ1OoK5o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Hey, if you&#8217;re reading this now, the project is finished. Vat and I left Seoul, South Korea on August 27th, 2014 and concluded just over a year of travel. I&#8217;ve written an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/01\/tywe-review\/\">in-depth summary<\/a> evaluating the successes and stumbles of the trip, but for a quick version:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Did we go the whole year without speaking English? No. But we did get pretty close to no English in Spain and Brazil. China and Korea were more mixed.<\/li>\n<li>Can we speak all four of the languages? Yes. We&#8217;re in an intermediate level in all four. Spanish is my best and Korean is my worst. Vat&#8217;s best is also Spanish and his worst is Chinese.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>See our TEDx Talk about the project here:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"One Simple Method to Learn Any Language | Scott Young &amp; Vat Jaiswal | TEDxEastsidePrep\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G1RRbupCxi0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>I want to announce my next learning project, The Year Without English. The challenge is to live in four countries, learn four languages and attempt to speak zero English for an entire year.<\/p>\n<p>Along this trip I\u2019m going to be accompanied by my good friend, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatjaiswal.com\/\">Vat Jaiswal<\/a>. Vat is also going to be learning all four languages, under the same constraint of not speaking English, even though he has never learned foreign language as an adult.<\/p>\n<p>Together, we want to show an honest record of what the process of full immersion is like. Excitement and burnout, triumphs and embarrassing slip ups, we want to share the experience of what it is like to abandon speaking the language you\u2019re most comfortable with and attempt to learn something strange and new.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Languages<\/h2>\n<p>We want to document the trip in two principle ways. First, we want to record a daily sample of our actual conversations from that day. Second, when each leg of our trip is complete, we want to compile it into a short video which will have an audio timelapse, drawn from our daily audio logs, so anyone can watch whatever progress we made along the way.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the four countries with the language we\u2019ll be attempting to learn in each. We\u2019ll update each of these below with our audio logs and the video, once complete.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"spain\"><\/a><strong>1. Spain (Valencia) \u2013 Spanish<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Learning Spanish in 11 Weeks  \/ 10 Min Documentary\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3oPIDXKf-Bw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>To get a longer assessment of our level of Spanish when we left, see this interview we did with Benny Lewis of <a href=\"http:\/\/fluentin3months.com\/\">FluentInThreeMonths<\/a>:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Conversation with Benny Lewis (Spanish with Subtitles)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/J4ZSsKLv2fk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In Spain, we also recorded <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/theyearwithoutenglish\/sets\/spanish-daily-logs\">near-daily conversations<\/a>, so you can pop in and check our Spanish level as it actually progressed.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"brazil\"><\/a><strong>2. Brazil (Florianopolis) \u2013 Portuguese<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Learning Portuguese in 9 Weeks \/ 6 Min Documentary\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UqavSdojM4E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>To get a longer assessment of our level of Portuguese when we left, see this interview we did with Portuguese professor, Renata Luis:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Portuguese Interview (2 Month Mark)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0pfwyaO3ep4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Once again, in Brazil, we recorded <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/theyearwithoutenglish\/sets\/portuguese-daily-logs\">frequent conversations<\/a> on SoundCloud so you can see our progress.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"china\"><\/a><strong>3. Kunming, Shanghai (China) and Taipei (Taiwan) \u2013 Mandarin Chinese<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Learning Chinese over 3\u00bd Months | 12 Min. Documentary\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6UFU_i5KWAQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>I have two interviews, one with Olle Linge of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/\">Hacking Chinese<\/a> recorded at the 3.5 month mark and another with John Pasden of <a href=\"http:\/\/sinosplice.com\/\">Sinosplice<\/a> recorded at the 3 month point.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Interview with Olle Linge (HackingChinese.com)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-485Kdr2Ltc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Interview with John Pasden (Sinosplice.com)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/x3LaXVZPfoU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In China we recorded <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/theyearwithoutenglish\/sets\/chinese-daily-logs\">daily conversations<\/a> for the first half of our project. Unfortunately, I had my cellphone stolen and our schedules made further recordings quite cumbersome, so we stopped the daily recordings at around the halfway point.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>4. South Korea (Seoul) \u2013 Korean<\/strong><\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Learning Korean in 12 Weeks (K-Pop Style)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/78BYEKr97TM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>After three countries, with three videos all done in the same style, Vat and I opted for something a little different. Check it out in the above video!<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Project FAQ<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Year Without English - Introduction\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Fpa0USCqJGY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>Q: Will you really speak zero English on this trip?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We really are trying to go without speaking English, but full avoidance is impossible. For one, my business often requires me to get on the phone and speak to someone. Second, my mother would probably kill me if I didn\u2019t speak to her for an entire year.<\/p>\n<p>So we have a small list of exceptions:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Anything absolutely necessary for work.<\/li>\n<li>Calling family members.<\/li>\n<li>Emergencies (like dealing with customs officials or police officers)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>In all I hope that the combination of #1 and #2 will be less than an hour per week of speaking in English. Everything else\u2014any conversations we have with each other, friends we make, etc. will be done in the language of the country we\u2019re in.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind the rule is no speaking English. Although I&#8217;ll want to communicate with people I meet in the written form of the language I use to speak with them, I&#8217;m (of course) going to continue blogging, answering emails and posting written updates in English. My goal is to keep my blog updated the same way I did during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog-new-new\/mit-challenge\/\">MIT Challenge<\/a>, which had a minimal time commitment.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Note: The rule was only a partial success on the trip. In Spain and Brazil, Vat and I were successful at avoiding speaking English expect for a few emergencies. In China and Korea, we did break the rule occasionally, on account of these languages being harder and fatigue from the trip itself.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Q: How much preparation did you do in each language prior to going?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When I asked my good friend, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fi3m.com\/\">Benny Lewis<\/a>, himself a language learning veteran, for advice on the project his first thought was: learn as much as you can before you get to each country. Our goal was to show it was possible to learn without extensive preparation, but we still wanted to have the basics so our no-English rule could be feasibly upheld from the first day.<\/p>\n<p>In total, we had about seven months to prepare for all four languages. My (Scott\u2019s) total preparation was less than an hour per day. Vat\u2019s was roughly 15 minutes per day, over the same time period.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a breakdown of the practice we did for each language, prior to arrival:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table tywe\">\n<table class=\"has-fixed-layout\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<td><strong>Scott<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Vat<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Spanish<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Anki = 27 hours<br \/>Pimsleur = 25 hours<br \/>Tutoring = 4 hours<br \/><strong>Total = 56 hours<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Anki = 2 hours<br \/>Pimsleur = 25 hours<br \/>Tutoring = 4 hours<br \/><strong>Total = 31 hours<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Portuguese<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Total = 0 hours<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Total = 0 hours<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Mandarin Chinese<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Anki = 70 hours<br \/>Pimsleur = 25 hours<br \/>Tutoring = 10 hours<br \/><strong>Total = 105 hours<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Pimsleur = 25 hours<br \/><strong>Total = 25 hours<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Korean<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Anki = 16 hours<br \/>Pimsleur = 15 hours<br \/>TalkToMeInKorean = 15 hours<br \/>Tutoring = 7 hours<br \/><strong>Total = 53 hours<\/strong><\/td>\n<td>Pimsleur = 10 hours<br \/><strong>Total = 10 hours<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong><br \/>Q: How are you paying for this? You guys must be rich.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Most people grossly overestimate the cost of a trip like this. Living in a single place for three months is far cheaper than staying in hotels and doing the things people typically associate with tourism. My first time I lived abroad for a year, I earned less than $12,000 that year and didn\u2019t have any debt when I left.<\/p>\n<p>I will continue running my business online and I\u2019ve hired Vat to help me edit the videos for the project. This means the only major expenses are plane tickets and any activities we want to do in each country, which we wouldn\u2019t normally do back home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: What level do you plan to reach in each language?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have no idea. In each country, my aspiration is to reach comfortable conversational fluency. But that may not happen. Especially in Mandarin and Korean which have a larger culture and linguistic distance from English.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, we wanted to focus the project on the method of not speaking English, and see how far we can go. Whatever happens, I\u2019m sure it will be an interesting ride!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: What language learning resources do you recommend?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Benny Lewis\u2019s website, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fi3m.com\/\">Fluent in Three Months<\/a>, was a big inspiration for this project. Benny shared a lot of advice with me in starting this project, so I strongly recommend his website to anyone who is interested in learning a language conversationally.<\/p>\n<p>For actually learning the languages, the three programs I found most useful, across all languages, were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pimsleur.com\/\">Pimsleur<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/italki.com\/\">iTalki<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/ankiweb.net\/\">Anki<\/a>. Pimsleur is a bit expensive, but it\u2019s worth it. iTalki is a way of getting inexpensive tutoring online. Anki is free, and is one of the most popular tools for learning languages.<\/p>\n<p>As we go to each country, I\u2019ll list the resources we found particular helpful in each country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Why four languages? Why not learn one language really well?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Part of it was the excitement to see if it could be done. I had learned French in one year, even if less efficiently than I had hoped. This challenge is something I\u2019m not sure whether I can succeed at, which makes it more interesting.<\/p>\n<p>Another reason is to get a taste of four very different cultures, side-by-side. I\u2019m hoping seeing the differences between them at the same stage in my life, will make the cultural differences more distinct and I can appreciate them better.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I see this, not as an end, but as a beginning for each of these languages. We picked these languages because they would afford us an opportunity to practice them all when we got back to Vancouver. I hope that even if I don\u2019t reach a high degree of fluency, they are languages I will continue to improve the rest of my life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Why did you pick those languages?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With difficulty! Vat and I spent months debating about which countries we were going to go to. In the end, we opted for a mix of geographic diversity, cultural diversity, linguistic prevalence in Canada and simply which countries we wanted to visit most. The four weren&#8217;t selected to be the hardest possible four languages to learn, or the four with the least inter-similarities (Portuguese and Spanish are quite similar in comparison with English).<\/p>\n<p>Other close candidates we had a hard time deciding between were Japanese, German, Turkish and Polish. Narrowing down a world of possibilities to just four was hard work!<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">Q: Why Taiwan instead of mainland China? <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>EDIT: Originally we were going to go to Taiwan, however Vat had visa problems staying in Taiwan for over 30 days! This was completely unexpected (we only learned later they wouldn&#8217;t offer a 90-day visa for him) so we opted to return to Canada for one week to process visas for China. It broke the strictness of not speaking English for a year, but we were able to salvage this leg of the trip. In China, we lived in Kunming and Shanghai. We did go to Taiwan for a short breather between China and Korea for three weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2014, I went with Vat Jaiswal on a trip to learn languages around the world. We traveled for just under one year, learning Spanish in Spain, Portuguese in Brazil, Mandarin Chinese in China and Taiwan and Korean in South Korea. For each language we had minimal preparation and aimed to learn with one rule: don&#8217;t speak in English! See the progress we made for each language in just three months each, as well as Vat&#8217;s stunning videography from each country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-3913","1":"myprojects","2":"type-myprojects","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Year Without English - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/myprojects\/the-year-without-english-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Year Without English - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 2014, I went with Vat Jaiswal on a trip to learn languages around the world. 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